Remember this next time a person says "but labour camps, tho".

So even if you take the highest estimate from the US State Department, the DPRK has 120k prisoners with a population of 26 million. The US prison population is 1.8 million* out of a total of 332 million. My calculator says that's 0.46% vs 0.53%

*This doesn't include the 3 million or so under parole or house arrest.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    6 months ago

    North Korea has released some 7,000 labor camp prisoners under an amnesty, but ordered local cash-strapped governments and impoverished residents to foot the bill for housing and feeding the ex-convicts, sources in the country told RFA.

    Fucking lol.

    "The ebil north korea released thousands of prisoners, which is bad because they will now make the poor innocent local governments, which we have decided for today and today only are not the ebil government of authoro-dictarian north korea, pay to house and feed people who are not being worked to death in the north korean death mines anymore."

    It's almost like some kind of non-falsifiable orthodoxy, Jim.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    ·
    6 months ago

    Doesn't the US have the highest incarceration rate in the world by a large margin? Like both proportionally and in absolute numbers?

      • ButtBidet [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Arguably it's 5th but probably much higher. #5 American Samoa is still fucking Amerika. El Salvador is #1 but they're capitalism's biggest fan. The Cuba #2 spot is based upon dissident reports from groups who weren't even in the country. Also Jesus, no one does solitary confinement like the US does it.

        Sorry to be so passionate but the State Department propaganda irks me hard sometimes.

    • mar_k [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      It was #1 proportionally a few years ago, now it's 5th

  • booty [he/him]
    ·
    6 months ago

    ah, but you see, the dprk has over a million people in underground gulags dug out by communist molemen. bet you feel silly now, huh?

    • keepcarrot [she/her]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Basically the dprk is actually a giant prison so it has a 100% incarceration rate checkmate tankies

  • Raebxeh
    ·
    6 months ago

    Every time you see an article discuss American prisons, replace “prison” with “slave labor camp” and see how it affects the tone